This is much easier on a laptop. I left it and books behind. Too burdensome.
Arrived last night. My plan to ride to the hostel was squashed when I found out it was 48km. There are two airports here. I arrived not at the one located 11 miles away. It was 20:30. I was tired. Slept nearly the whole ten hours plane ride. I had a row to myself. Four blankets, earplugs, and sunglasses and I was out.
Getting through border patrol was painless. No temperature checks, no covid test, just showing my passport, passenger health locator form which everyone received on the plane and are rarely collected, and my Turkish visa. The health form to was collected, the rest returned to me.
I assembled Loretta outside. Easy as I packed her. My best pack job so far. I took photos of the last shop that packed it (Ben from Open Air Cycles in Ventura) as it was the most stellar boxup I've yet seen. I followed his lead. I had all the fixings that the manufacturer used for the previous inhabitant- all the neat little foam wraps etc.
I have all maps of Turkey downloaded to my offline maps program. I failed to pin the hostel before I left. I asked a nearby cabbie to read the address so I could pin the map. That's when I found out how far it was. I splurged in a cab ride -$40. My biggest expense while here. The hostel is $5/nt.
I slept til 06:00, my normal wake-up time, had sweet coffee, wrote in my journal, texted hellos, went out for a cig, and fell back to sleep until 17.00. It is so comfortable here. I am in no rush. I have roughly two months to see whatever catches my fancy.
I bought tinned provisions at the shop below, ate, dressed and headed out around 20.00 (8pm). I wandered. I am in old town. Everything is open. Many people out strolling. I kept count of cats I saw- 35Ce3K:3D (where C is cats, e is estimated, K is kittens, D is dogs). I lost cat count at 33. One orange kitten came out from under a pedestrian overpass. I petted him, looked for it's kin, saw none, picked it up to take shopping for a meal at the bodega across the lane. Girls and women squealed at the sight of my kitten. The woman shop owner as well. She asked if I speak Russian. Ne noshka is my reply ("not much, a bit"). I gestured food for the kitten. Malako? (milk?). She gestured to hold the kitten. I gladly relinquished it. It's only my first night here. I'll come back with fifty cats if someone doesn't save me. I pointed to where I found it - he lives there. He's yours now. Thank you!
I wandered with no destination in mind. I walked just to stretch my legs. I came home around 23.30.
My Russian roommate did my Vedic horoscope. Saturn is far from the U.S. The U.S. is not a good money place for me. I am destined to live in a strong country: Germany, China, Russia, the UK. Works for me. She is here to apply at University to become an English teacher. In Istanbul a good apartment runs about $300/mo.
That's it for now. Good wifi here. Let's see if I can upload some pics.
Night time pics so fuzzy.
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